Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1887-09-10


and as soon ns the flame bad get bold Of tbs
wick I turned It on down the boat As il
happened, The Ilrst thing the light lii on was
The white and scared face Of Alphonse, who,
thinking that &c was alf'oyer at last, and that
he vas witnessing preliminary &C.
lestial phenomenon, gave terrific yell,
and was with difficulty treasured with
tho paddle AS fnr the other three, Good
was lying on the fiat Of his back, his eye
glass still fixed in bis eye, and gazing blankly
into tie upper darkness. Sir Henry had his
head resting on the thwarts of tho canoe, and
with his hand was trying to test the speed Of
the water. But when tho beam OF light fell
upon old Umslopogaas could really have
laughed. think havesaid that we bad put
roast quarter Of water buck into the canoe
Well, it SO happened that whom wo all pros
trnted ourselves 10 aveid being swept out Of
the boat and into the water by the rock roof,
Umslopogaas' head had como down upcom-
monty near thiq roast buck, and so soon rs he
had recovered little from the first shock Of
our position IL occurred to him that he was
hungry. Thcreupon he coolly cut off chop
with Inkosi-kaas, and was now employed in
eating it, with every appearance of satisfac-
that he was going "on long Journey and
preferred to start on full stomach. 1t re-
minded mo IL the people who are going to be
| hanged, and who are generally reported Ia
the English daily papers to have made ian
excellent breakfast
As soon as the others saw that | had man
aged to light up tue lamp, we bundled
Alphonse into tho farther end Of tho canoe
with threat. which Gained him wonder
/ fully, that IL he would insist upon making
the darkness hideous with his cries we would
put him out of suspense by sending him to
/ join tue Wakwail and wait for Annette in
another sphere, and began to discuss the
situation ns well ms we could First, how
! syer, at Goods suggestion NO bound two
| paddles mast fashion In the bows, SO that
/ they might give us warning against any
i sudden lowering of tile roof of the cave or
water way. It Wa clear to US that wo were
| in an underground giscr, or, as Alphonse de-
/ fined it, smain d,ail.n Which carried of the
the supernnous waters Of the lake. Such
rivers are well known to existdl many parts
of the world. but it has not often been the
evil fortune Of explorers to travel by them.
That the river was wide we could clearly see,
for the light from the bulls eye lantern
failed to reach from shore to shore, although
occasionally when the current swept uset.ier
to one side or the other, we could distinguish
the rock wall of the tunnel, which, as far as
we could make out, appeared to arch about
twenty five feet above our heads As for the
the current itself, it ran, Good estimated, at
least eight knots, and fortunately for us was,
as Is usual, fercest in the middle of tho
stream. Still, our first act was to arrange
that one of us with the lantern and a pole
there was in the canoe should always be in
the bows ready, IL possible, to prevent
rs fror1 being stove in against the
side OF tho cave or any project
ing rock Umslopogaas, having already
dined, took tho first turn. This was ALSO
lutely. with one exception, all that we could
do towards preserving gtir safety. The ez'
ception was that another tf t,s took up POI
sition in the stern with paddle, by means of
which 1t was possible to steer the canoe fiiore
or less, and to leep her from the sides OF tie
cave. These matters attended to- we made a
somewhat sparing meal off the cold bucks
meat for we did not know how long it might
have to last us); and then feeling In rather
better spirits, gave my opinion that, serious
as it undoubtedly was, 1 did not consider our
position altogether without hope, unless, in
deed, the natives were right, and hesriver
plunged straight down into the bowels Of the
earth. Ii not, it was clear that it must emerge
somewhere, probably on the other side OF the
, mountains, and in that case all we had to
think OF was to keep ourselves alive till we
got there, wherever "there" might be- But
, of course, as Good lugubriously pointed out
on the other hand we might fall victims to a
hundred unsupported horrors, or the river
might 60 winding away inside the earth till
it dried up, in which case our fate would in.
decd be an awful one. IL
sWell, let us hope for the best and prepare
ourselves for tho worst, . said Sir Henry who
is always cheerful and even spirited-a very
tower Of strength in the time of trouble
q ave have come out of so many queer scrapes
together that somehow / almost fancy we
{ shall come out of this, !" he added GEr
| This was excellent advice, and we proceed
] ell to take it each in our separate ways-tha1
|, is, except Alphonse, who had by now sunk into
i a sort of terrified stupor. Good was at the
t helm and Unlslopogaas i'll the bows, SO there
Q was nothing left for Sir Henry and myself Il
q do except lie down in the canoe and think
It certainly was a curious, and indeed almos
! q weird, position to be placed in-rushine
I along, as we were, through the bowels of tn,
earth, borne on the bosom of O Stygian river
something after the fashion of souls bein.
I ferried by Charon, as Curtis said. And how
/ dark it wasl the feeble ray from our littl
4 lamp did but serve to show the darkness
i There in the bows sat old Umslopogaas, Xix
Pleasure in the poem, watchful and untiring
q the pole ready to his hand, and behind in tn
j shadow I could just make out the form o
0 Good peering forward at the ray of light il
o or,ter to make out how to steer with the pad
!. ds that he held, and now and again dippe
o tsto the water.
v "Well, WELL" thought /, "you have come i
i search of adventures, Allan, my boy, and 20
g have certainly got them. AT your time c
a life tool you ought to be ashamed of your
o self, but somehow you are not; and awful q
1 it all is, perhaps you will pull through gafte
II all; aud if you don't, why, you cannot help i
4 you seel And when ais said and done, a
\ underground river will make very apprt
Ii pirate burying place."
ID 1t was nearly mid day when we made on
's dive into darkness, and we had set our waite
lie Good and Umslopogaas, at 2, havin
ID agreed that it should be OF duratio
| A. ~. .,aao,dfnylx- -